Searchlight drive robust digital finance transformation with FatFace
Searchlight Consulting has a long-running working relationship with high street retailer, FatFace. Over the last seven years, Searchlight has provided support to shape and deliver the FatFace digital transformation journey, helping to land and embed the change across the business. Ultimately, Searchlight has helped FatFace navigate from a complex, ageing, legacy application landscape to enable the delivery of new business and digital capabilities.
Challenge
FatFace was seeking to upgrade their business capabilities, while moving to a modern cloud application architecture. This aimed to reduce to the cost of technology maintenance and increase the speed to deliver future business change.
Searchlight worked with FatFace to:
- Outline the most appropriate digital application strategy, aligned to business capabilities
- Design a phased transformation programme
- Support the selection and commercial negotiation of the application, technology and system integration partners
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Searchlight outlined a clear roadmap for FatFace to upgrade key business capabilities, as well as replace and introduce new applications over time. In order for the transformation to have long-lasting success, Searchlight focused on ensuring a pragmatic approach was adopted to drive a phased transformation rather than an overnight overhaul of legacy systems.
The IT strategy mapped out a three-phase business release (BR) transformation programme. This case study focuses on the introduction of BR1 finance and order management. Following case studies will delve into the work involved in BR2 EPOS upgrade, and BR3 Buying and Merchandising programmes.
What Searchlight Consulting did
Following completion of an initial strategy alignment project, in 2015, Mulesoft was selected to enable the delivery of a new eCommerce platform. Mulesoft was introduced as integration layer to enable various applications, eCommerce, finance, buying and merchandising apps to be connected through the Mulesoft layer. This was an enabler to the design of a subsequent multi-phase transformation programme.
In 2018, Searchlight revisited the IT strategy, focusing on the selection, negotiation and delivery of a platform to upgrade the end-to-end business process capabilities. The strategy review included an evaluation of Infor, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP, resulting in the selection of Microsoft Dynamics 365. Microsoft Dynamics 365 was chosen because of its comprehensive suite of specifically designed business applications, ability to support finance, distributed order management and electronic point of sales (EPOS) capabilities.
The Searchlight team, supported the process for outlining the strategy, selection of systems, negotiation, contracting and subsequent architecture business change and assurance delivery services to introduce the first business release (BR1) – finance and order management.
Zona Smith, IT Director at FatFace notes, “Searchlight became an integral part of the FatFace team and provided expert advice to help us design our transformation programme. The Searchlight team guided and supported us through every stage of the transformation process and were on-hand to help us embed new the new business solution”
Results
The finance and order management solution was the first stage of the FatFace digital transformation journey, and went live in 2020. This involved upgrading processes and capabilities across the business. Key benefits of the programme included.
- Implementation of modern architecture
- Replacement of end-of-life applications
- Establishment of a standard automated processes
- Implemented a single data model
- Upgraded core business capabilities
Contact us today to learn more about how Searchlight Consulting can help with your digital transformation.
More Information
Searchlight are experts at aligning business and IT strategy, shaping business transformation programmes and helping our clients build business and IT capability throughout the transformation journey. Contact us today to find out how our independent advice could help you grow, develop new capabilities and future-proof your organisation.